My Remembrance Day Essay

~~Remembrance day is the Anniversary of the official end of World
War 1 hostilities on November 11th, 1918. World War 1 was a
massive conflict, it was played out over the globe! But
particularly Europe, Where troops from Canada supported the
Allied forces.

World war 1 resulted in the loss of loads of people. Both
civilian and military. Many more were badly injured, All left was
emotional scars to the servicemen, Who has experienced it, And in
the communities who had lost there sons, brothers, uncles,
fathers, and even grandfathers.

November 11th is called Remembrance day in Canada, but it can be
called something different in other countries. Theres Remembrance
day, Armistic day, or poppy day.

Like in New Zealand its called Armistic day. Did you know, in the
UK, the sunday closest to November 11th is called 'Remembrance
sunday'.

Remembrance day is symbolized by the artificial poppies that
people wear. The symbol of remembrance comes from a poem written
by John McCrae. The poem is called "In Flanders Fields" and
describes the poppies growing in the flemish graveyards where
soldiers were buried.

Poppies have long been used as a symbol of sleep, peace, and
death: Sleep because of the common blood-red color of the red
poppy in particular. In Greek and Roman myths, poppies were used
as offerings to the dead.

The Flanders poppy has long been a part of Remembrance Day, the
ritual that marks the Armistice of 11 November 1918, and is also
increasingly being used as part of ANZAC dAY observances. During
the First World War, red poppies were among the first plants to
spring up in the devastated battlefields of northern France and
Belgium. In soldiers' folklore, the vivid red of the poppy came
from the blood of their comrades soaking the ground. The sight of
poppies on the battlefield at Ypres in 1915 moved Lieutenant
Colonel John McCrae to write the poem In Flanders fields. In
English literature of the nineteenth century, poppies had
symbolised sleep or a state of oblivion; in the literature of the
First World War a new, more powerful symbolism was attached to
the poppy - the sacrifice of shed blood.

Some people wonder, 'Why did the war end?'. Well, it started like
this.

The War of 1812 referred to as the "Second War of Independence"
was a 32-month military conflict between the United States on one
side, and on the other Great Britain, its colonies and its Indian
allies in North America. The outcome resolved many issues which
remained from the American war of Independance, but involved no
boundary changes. The United States declared war in 1812 for
several reasons, including trade restrictions brought about by
Britain's continuing war with france, the impressment of American
merchant sailors into the Royal, British support of American
Indian tribes against American expansion, outrage over insults to
national honour after humiliations on the high seas, and possible
American interest in annexing British North American territory
which had been denied to them in the settlement ending the
American Revolutionary War.

Now for the real question 'Why did the war start?'

On June 18, America declared war on Britain. The war had many
causes, but at the center of the conflict was the United
Kingdom's ongoing war with Napoleon's France.

The war was fought from 1812 to 1815, although a peace treaty was
signed in 1814. By the end of the war, 1,600 British and 2,260
American troops had died. Great Britain had been at war with
France since 1793, and to impede neutral trade with France
imposed a series of restrictions that the U.S. contested as
illegal under international law. The Americans declared war on
Britain on June 18, 1812 for a combination of reasons, including:
outrage at the impressment (conscription) of American sailors
into the British navy; frustration at British restraints on
neutral trade; anger at alleged British military support for
American Indians defending their tribal lands from encroaching
American settlers; and a desire for territorial expansion of the
Republic.

In Canada, Remembrance Day is a public holiday and federal
statutory holiday, as well as a statutory holiday in all three
territories and in six of the ten provinces Nova Scotia,
Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec being the exceptions From 1921 to
1930, the Armistice Day Act provided that Thanksgiving would be
observed on Armistice Day, which was fixed by statute on the
Monday of the week in which 11 November fell. In 1931, the
federal parliament adopted an act to amend the Armistice Day Act,
providing that the day should be observed on 11 November and that
the day should be known as "Remembrance Day".

The federal department of Veterans Affairs Canada states that the
date is of "remembrance for the men and women who have served,
and continue to serve our country during times of war, conflict
and peace"; specifically, the First and Second World Wars, the
Korean War, and all conflicts since then in which members of the
Canadian Forces have participated. The department runs a program
called Canada Remembers with the mission of helping young and new
Canadians, most of whom have never known war, "come to understand
and appreciate what those who have served Canada in times of war,
armed conflict and peace stand for and what they have sacrificed
for their country".

The arrival of the governor general is announced by a trumpeter
sounding the "Alert", whereupon the viceroy is met by the
Dominion President of the RCL and escorted to a dais to receive
the Viceregal Salute, after which the national anthem,"O Canada",
is played.

World War 1 was an extremely bloody war, with huge losses of life
and little ground lost or won. Fought mostly by soldiers in
trenches, World War 1 saw an estimated 10 million military
deaths. While many hoped that World War 1 would be "the war to
end all wars," in actuality, the concluding peace treaty set the
stage for World War 2.

Germany didn't want to fight both Russia in the east and France
in the west, so they enacted their long-standing Schlieffen Plan.
The Schlieffen Plan was created by Alfred Graf von Schlieffen,
who was the chief of the German general staff from 1891 to 1905.

Schlieffen believed that it would take about six weeks for Russia
to mobilize their troops and supplies. So, if Germany placed a
nominal number of soldiers in the east, the majority of Germany's
soldiers and supplies could be used for a quick attack in the
west.

Since Germany was facing this exact scenario of a two-front war
at the beginning of World War 1, Germany decided to enact the
Schlieffen Plan. While Russia continued to mobilize, Germany
decided to attack France by going through neutral Belgium. Since
Britain had a treaty with Belgium, the attack on Belgium
officially brought Britain into the war.

While Germany was enacting its Schlieffen Plan, the French
enacted their own prepared plan, called Plan XVII. This plan was
created in 1913 and called for quick mobilization in response to
a German attack through Belgium.

As German troops moved south into France and the French and
British troops moved north to meet them, the massive armies met
each other in a stalemate. By September 1914, neither side could
force the other to move, so each side began to dig trenches. For
the next four years, the troops would fight from these trenches.